


Jekyll & Hyde - ITV - Meta / Review

by Boji



Category: Jekyll and Hyde 2015, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Genre: Episode Review, Gen, Meta, Reviews
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-26
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-28 04:52:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5078485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boji/pseuds/Boji
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thoughts on the first episode and its influences, with a nod to Film Noir and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jekyll & Hyde - ITV - Meta / Review

**Author's Note:**

> Script by Charlie Higson.

Stylistically - set design and costume wise - this is an utterly gorgeous drama. If you like the Art Deco period (and I do) it's a feast for the senses - from the interior upholstery of the car Richard E Grant was sitting in, to [Eltham Palace](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2981286/Secrets-art-deco-Eltham-Palace.html) which I believe doubles for his office.

  
And then there are clothes and accessories. All the men are besuited, wearing a tilted fedoras, more often than not. Ladies are crowned with elegant little hats, painted fingernails grasping elegant clutch bags. No-one's hair is out of place but Hyde's, and even the cars are also works of art in their own right.

Truthfully, the look of the piece reminds me most strongly of the 1994 production of [_The Shadow_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6816MUx9E0) in which Alec Baldwin played the superhero fighting his darker side, in 1930's New York. _The Shadow_ apparently originated in 1930's pulp serialised fiction. Roughly at that time Raymond Chandler's pulp fiction (written for the [Black Mask ](http://www.blackmaskmagazine.com/bm_15.html))was re-worked into his first novel _The Big Sleep._ Why mention either? Mainly because, to my mind, Dr. Robert Jekyll as imagined by Charlie Higson is heavily influenced by [Lamont Cranston](http://www.comicvine.com/the-shadow/4005-28923/) and, influenced to a lesser degree by Philip Marlowe. I assume his anti-hero will prove chivalrous, and probably more white knight than black.

ITV's production of _Jekyll and Hyde_ is aimed directly at a family viewing audience. It's after the [Doctor Who audience](http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/oct/25/tom-bateman-on-playing-both-jekyll-and-hyde-hopefully-we-can-get-the-doctor-who-audience), but I'm unsure as to how successful it will be. Why? Well, predominantly, the special effects are dark as hell for tea time viewing and far more importantly I can't see who the younger audience would come into the show with. With _Doctor Who_ the audience enter the TARDIS with the companion, for all that people have their Doctor. In _Jekyll and Hyde_ we enter with Robert Jekyll who is already a certified Doctor. A grown-up if you will, and not really an outsider in his community in Ceylon for all that he is adopted. He may have a 'condition', he may be tall, dark, tousled-haired and written in the vein of misunderstood hero, but the last time a murderous antihero so captured the hearts of teenage girls they'd met his love interest first - and she was a teenager. I am, of course, referring to Joss Whedon's Buffy and Angel, Angelus of course being the Hyde aspect of the vampire's nature. If _Jekyll and Hyde_ can capture the redemption vibe successfully, and throw in some unrequited or tortured love interest, this series could be wildly popular with the Tumblr audience of a certain age. Tom Bateman is easy on the eye, with or without eyeliner. And both his character's possible love interests look stunning.

With a strong nod to 1930's Film Noir episode one introduces both the good girl, Lily, and the temptress, Bella. The former is played by Stephanie Hyam, the latter by Natalie Gumede. Lily is in almost immediate danger (captured the moment after she meets Dr. Jekyll) needing to be rescued and, it can be said, rescued from the fact that she's trapped in a life of duty caring for her sick mother. Bella seems to own or run a bar, and is probably Sunday's early evening equivalent to [Gilda](http://www.filmsite.org/gild.html). The hero, Dr. Robert Jekyll? He will, undoubtedly, be walking in the footsteps of Raymond Chandler's hero, torn between an angel and a fallen woman, to use tropes from the period.

Will either woman resonate with a younger audience? I wonder.

Let's not forget Buffy entered the zeitgeist as a fifteen year old teenager who'd been expelled for burning down her high school gym. She may have been _other_ , as a slayer, but in many ways she was a typical teenage girl. And she had friends viewers could relate to, if they couldn't relate to her.

The first episode of _Jekyll and Hyde_ sets time, place, and backstory (of the central character) very well. World building with MIO (the Ministry investigating other with Richard E Grant's as its chief Bulstrode) and the evil stirring in the heart of London's docklands and in Ceylon is solid. Higson (in my opinion) draws heavily on Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey or [monomyth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth), at least in this episode. Here the call-to-adventure is, of course, the young Doctor discovering he's in line for a mysterious inheritance. Heeding that call he has to leave home and travel. Supernatural aid offered to him at the train station by the wise beggar-woman looked to be in the form of a purple [lotus flower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_%28attribute%29). It's possibly a sacred lotus and should hold the key to Jekyll's control of the Hyde side of his nature later in the series, although that is a guess. And having crossed the threshold the loss of the family he called his own means he can no longer return home. Rage and grief triggering his metamorphosis and Hyde nature (if you will - hind brain?) in the scene in which he transforms and trashes a hotel room can even be seen as Campbell's _Belly of the Whale_ stage of the monomyth:

_"The idea that the passage of the magical threshold is a transit into a sphere of rebirth is symbolized in the worldwide womb image of the belly of the whale. The hero, instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, is swallowed into the unknown and would appear to have died."_ 


Undoubtedly, Dr. Jekyll's character arc for the series will be his discovering why he is the way he is and, if Hyde has been too destructive (or murderously active) he will no doubt decide to fight evil in the hearts of men - his own and others.

Climbing across rooftops and introducing themselves as the evil to be pitted against, are a secret organisation _Tenebrae_ with harbinger foot soldiers. That _really_ calls to mind _Buffy The Vampire Slayer_. Whedon's later series did have harbingers, as I recall, although the special effects department here seems to have grown heavily from _The Hobbit_.

Throughout the special effects are damn good, but costume and props are fantastic. I also really like the supporting cast, above all - Hills - played by Ruby Bentall whom I find superb, and who I was lucky enough to see on stage at the National Theatre a few years ago in Mike Leigh's _Grief_. When we first see Hills (and her boss Mr Utterson) they're in a small legal office in the backstreets of London. It's probably meant to be a slightly insalubrious address. The name on the door is being scratched off and I assume they're shuttering. If the legal office veers off in the realm of detection, I will no doubt watch with my tongue firmly in my cheek and wonder how closely _Angel the Series_ might influence Higson's vision and adaptation.

And, talking of influences, I assume the use of the name Bulstrode, and the young MIO agent who could easily be thought of as a Metamorphmagus is a direct nod to the Potterverse and an invitation for fandom to indulge in crossovers set in the Grindelwald era?

Pacing throughout was good, but I did think there was a little too much of an emphasis on violence and fisticuffs - even given the fact that fighting, anger and the more unrestrained emotions are what make up Hyde, under the veneer of what was originally a Victorian gentleman. Robert Louis Stevenson's tale was published in 1886. Joseph Conrad wrote _Heart of Darkness_ in 1899. Both texts explore hypocrisy and darkness at the heart of what was the British Empire and repressed civilised society, for all that ITV's adaptation may nod to demons, drug addiction, alcoholism or mental illness.

It's a slick production and it's fun, easy viewing but I'm not sure if the violent quotient, coupled with the period, the style, and the occasionally hammy dialogue might not mean it misses its intended audience.

I will tune in again next Sunday but admit I'm primarily watching for the costumes and sets, then for the cast and finally for story.


End file.
